Cow Goes "Weekly Status Report 11" Moo

Week 11 of Cow Goes Moo, we learned several new features of the Visual Basics. After reviewing the different careers related to computers others in the class researched, we learned Timer control which is used to respond to the time event. Once the Timer Control's Enabled property becomes True, it updates and receives an event at every time interval set. The interval is set in milliseconds. However there are few limitations to Timer control, like the maximum interval is only 64767, meaning no more than little over a minute can be set as an interval or the fact that the timer might not be able to keep up with its interval due to its accuracy. We applied the Timer Control to create a stopwatch program where the timer control enabled is set true if the start button is clicked. Another lesson was on the While Loop. This loop is used when the statement needs to be repeated indefinite amount of times and is only stopped if a given condition is matched. Using this, we started working on a program that determines the number of times that a positive even integer can be divided by two and a program that determines if a SIN number is valid.

The program that determines if a SIN number is valid using a While loop is yet completed and is the primary goal for the upcoming week.
The week also included a unit test. I feel I did very good on this test even though the next day in the course of reviewing the questions on the test, I realized I got the last question completely wrong. The day before the test, we had a practise test and review on things learned before. I didn't so particularly well in that practise test and had to study the previous lessons again to prepare for the test. The biggest challenge and the acheivement for the week was the test and I believe its been resolved by studying and reviewing the notes from previous classes.

Cow Goes "Weekly Status Report 10" Moo

Week 10 of Cow Goes Moo, I first started the week by completing the loop programs from last week which I had 4 out of 7 finished. The rest 3 programs were much more complicated than the 4 I've completed. It involved me setting up a n, number value, for calculating and creating a loop. The most complicated one was the final program where I had to develop a program which have to determine if a number inputed is a prime number or not. Then I moved on to creating a slide show using a picture box and a picturebox loop statement. The pictures would appear in sequence when a button is clicked. Next we moved on to learn the Exit For statement. Exit For statement is used when the user wants to exit the For...Next loop in the middle of the loop. We developed a average mark calculating program by using the Inputbox and we can terminate the program by inputing -1.

The most complicated program of the week was the guessing game program. We would use the randomize statement to let the program randomly select a number between 1 to 255 and the user would be given 8 tries to guess collectly with the hints given. either too high or too low. Finally we ended the week with a group project where we had to research 6 different careers related computers and make a report. For every career we divided it up into 4 subtopics, brief descriptions, education/training, potential workplace and the wages. We researched Game Designer, Web Designer, Securities Specialist, Computer Technician, Net Administrator and QA tester.

This week, all of the works were completed and feel comfortable with the skills learned. The challenge faced, by the whole class, was that when we saved a program into the G drive on the schools computers, the programs would not run due to some firewall and security issues. The problem was solved, atleast temperately, by saving the programs on to the USB key. The only problems with this is that we have to remember to bring the USB key everyday. Other than that, it was a week with all the works completed and not much goal for the upcoming week.

Cow Goes "Weekly Status Report 9" Moo

Week 9 of Cow Goes Moo, was another shorten week. The first day of the week, tuesday we finished up the pizza order form program from the previous week. We did learn something new this week. The main focus and skills learned is the loop. Loops are structure that repeats a set of statements. They are four loop statements, For Next, While loops, Do loops and For Each Loops. So far we've only learned the For..Next Statement. It uses a variable counter expressed as i or j or k and loops from For until the Next statement. We were given 7 different programs that uses the For...Next statement. For the rest of the week, we completed the loop work sheet. Total combined 7 different programs we made and uses the togglepoint to follow and learn how the loop operates. We made tables to trace the each steps which the program operates.

The work remaining for the week is the For...Next Statement programs. Out of the 7 programs, I have only completed around 4. If given time, finishing the rest of them is the priority for next week. Another goal for up coming weeks is the test that we probably will have. It is hard to remember the things learned before because there were many days off recently and its hard to keep it updated in my brain.

The challenge faced and the future goal is to check the program more carefully. For the pizza order form, we lost some easy marks because we did not double check the work well enough. For the next program that is being marked, it is important for me to carfully check if any small details are not finished.

Cow Goes "Weekly Status Report 8" Moo

Week 8 of Cow Goes Moo,nothing new was learned because we had no lesson this week. Being a short 4 day week plus working on our big group project, we did not have any leesons. We did have some in between tips regarding on the group project. The project was given on monday. It was to develop a Pizza Palace Order Form where we can choose the different Pizza size, Pizza type, the toppings, side dishes and drinks and calculate the total price of all. It also had to include dialog boxes on the menu so the user can set his or her own prices of each items. We had to use many of the skills learned previous and incorporate all of them in order to finish the program. There were many parts to the program and each had to be broken down in order to make the process much easier. Just making the interface of the program took me a whole period.

Surprisingly as complicated as the program has been, we did not run into that many problems. One of the problems that I had to face was on the first day of working on the project, my partner was absent so I had to start off alone. When he came back the nest day, I had to explain him what we are working on and how much work was completed so far. Other problems occursed when starting a section of the program, we just struggles to find where to begin. We did get some help from mainly the teacher to get started off. Surprisingly once we started working on the codes, we did not make any errors in the codes so the program worked fine.

When the week was over, our project was roughly around 99% completed. I think only documemtation is left in order to complete the program. Third dialog box for the prgram seems to be done but we did not have time to check if it works properly. I am not completely sure of this because we may have forgot to do some of parts of the prgram. Finishinf the program for tuesday and making sure it functions properly is the main goal for the upcoming week.